September 10 – Based on a study by Nielsen Sports, world governing body FIFA has claimed the inaugural Club World Cup a media success, reporting a global audience of 2.7 billion.
Earlier this summer, Chelsea won the maiden edition of FIFA’s expanded 32-team tournament, which also served as a rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup. The Club World Cup was met by scepticism from European fans and marred by slow ticket sales, major heat concerns and a Donald Trump takeover of the finale, but FIFA says Neilson’s estimated 2.7 billion fans across all forms of media make it a ‘game-change.
FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström said: “These preliminary figures confirm that the FIFA Club World Cup has been a global success and a game-changer. From the incredible atmosphere in the stadiums in the United States to 2.7 billion people engaging around the world, the tournament has exceeded expectations. FIFA promised to take this tournament to the world, and there’s no doubt that the world took to the tournament. We thank our global broadcast partner DAZN for their support in delivering this success.”
FIFA highlighted data that claimed 49% of the population in Spain watched the competition and that Al Hilal’s win against Manchester City achieved a market share of 77.9% in Saudi Arabia.
DAZN stepped in to acquire the TV rights for the tournament after FIFA had struggled to persuade its traditional broadcast partners to buy in. The streaming platform has bled money to date, with losses running into the billions, but DAZN received a $1 billion injection through SURJ, an arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The prize money at the Club World Cup was set at $1 billion.
DAZN itself has not released any tournament broadcast figures.
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